Former Auburn Police Officer Jeffrey Nelson was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison for second-degree murder after shooting a man while on duty in May 2019.
In a packed courtroom Thursday, Jan. 23 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, with attendants spilling into the overflow seating and 200-plus viewers on Zoom, King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Phelps sentenced Nelson for the May 31, 2019, murder of Jesse Sarey, 26.
Nelson, 46, also received a 123-month sentence for first-degree assault against Sarey, however, that will run at the same time as the 200-month murder sentence. The judge’s sentence is 20 months short of the prosecution’s recommendation of 220 months and exponentially longer than the defense’s recommendation of 78 months.
Details of the crime
A jury in June 2024 found Nelson guilty of murder and assault with a deadly weapon following the shooting death of Sarey. After attempting to arrest Sarey, Nelson shot him once in the stomach and then once more in the forehead when he was on the ground. Sarey was the third person Nelson had killed as a K9 and patrol officer — the other two being 48-year-old Brian Scaman in May 2011 and Isaiah Obet in June 2017.
Nelson was the first police officer in Washington to be convicted of murder following the institution of Initiative 940, which changed the standard for holding police criminally liable for excessive use of force.
The sentencing
In attendance on Nelson’s side of the courtroom were various family and friends, Auburn Police officers, including Assistant Chief Sam Betz and Cmdr. Cristian Adams, who defended Nelson in a statement to Phelps, and Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus, who did not speak to the judge. According to City of Auburn spokesperson Jonathan Glover, Backus attended to support the Auburn Police Department and City of Auburn staff, of which many officers were in attendance, including Nelson’s wife, Natalie Mount, a current Auburn officer.
During her sentence recommendation to Phelps, Nelson’s attorney, Kristen Murray, said that various Auburn officers and Backus were present to support Nelson. She said this isn’t seen in cases where a rogue officer abuses his power.
“Police officers go into this job because they feel an obligation and a duty to serve. A duty to protect and serve their communities,” Murray said. “They’re not going to stand by somebody who abuses their power, who abuses the public trust or who hurts people.”
In attendance on the state side of the courtroom were Jesse Sarey’s younger brother Koleton Hart, foster sibling Amelia Dillard, foster mother Elaine Simons, older brother Matthew Sarey through Zoom, and various others who had lost children due to a police killing or were there to support Jesse Sarey. Hart told Phelps that the death of Sarey led to a ripple effect of his mother dying due to drinking and their other brother, Terrell Sarey, dying too.
Hart told Phelps that he was 14 when Jesse Sarey died, and his father had passed away a month before. Hart told Phelps he would drown out everything that was going on by playing video games. He said that if proper training had been used, maybe none of these events would have occurred, and he just hoped the lesson would be learned at the end of the day.
“It’s a long time coming. Yeah, it’s a struggle a lot of us have to face, but regardless, we have to be strong for first ourselves, but more importantly, everyone else, because this can happen to anyone. It’s just to say this a win, but there’s many more wins to go for,” Hart told the media following the sentencing at a gathering of people who had lost family members due to police killings.
The prosecution’s statement
Representing the state, Patty Eakes, a special deputy prosecutor, began her sentence recommendation by telling Phelps a little about who Jesse Sarey was. Eakes said through letters sent to the judge, she saw how Jesse Sarey always made people laugh, he was always appreciative when people showed him kindness, and he had empathy for the less fortunate, especially in the circumstances he was in. Eakes said Jesse Sarey was homeless, suffered from mental health and became addicted to drugs.
Eakes said that as a lawyer, she believes in equal justice under the law, which applies to people on the margins of society, who have people who care about them, and who have rights. Eakes said the people on the margins of society are the ones who need protection under the law the most.
Eakes said people on the margins are often cast to the side, and she believes that, unfortunately, that is what happened to Jesse Sarey. Eakes said Nelson devalued Jesse Sarey’s life, and it is particularly tragic in this instance because Nelson, as a police officer, was entrusted by society to protect the rights of someone like Jesse Sarey.
Eakes said the prosecution’s decision to recommend the maximum sentence was not easy, especially because there is no precedent for sentencing officers. However, Eakes said Nelson had received extensive training and made many choices to disregard it, which is one of the critical reasons the state recommended the maximum sentence.
Eakes said another thing the court needs to look at is Nelson’s history. Eakes referenced a July 9, 2014 incident, previously reported on, in which Nelson and Adams were on recording when they apprehended a man, Jon Winterhawk, and after some dispute, Nelson asked Adams, “Want to fuck them up?” To which Adams replied: “We might as well.”
“But the attitude that it displayed and the arrogance, I guess I would say that it displays to say to another officer, hey, you know, it essentially says, we got the power. You want to go with me and fuck them up? Is really pretty frightening,” Eakes said. “It shows that violence was not a last resort, it was a preference. He then went on, as the court knows, tased, Mr. Winterhawk, and used a chokehold on him, and choked him until he was unconscious.”
The defense’s statement
Murray said the state has tried to present the facts about Nelson as one-sided, which is not accurate and unfair. Murray said that in the altercation that led to Jesse Sarey’s death, Nelson was in a fight for his life, and Nelson thought Sarey was armed with his knife that he had taken off Nelson.
“He wishes every day that he had seen that knife fall to the ground. Because then Mr. Sarey would be alive. Because he would have never shot a man that he knew to be unarmed,” Murray said.
Murray said Nelson was injured following the altercation with Jesse Sarey, and it was a very traumatic incident for Nelson. Murray said people reported that following the incident, Nelson looked devastated, he had a blank stare on his face, and the way he sounded when he called for help was a way he had never sounded before.
Murray referenced how Nelson asked for evidence to be preserved and for the perimeter to be secured. Murray said Nelson would not have done that if he was trying to hide something.
Murray said Nelson wanted the incident to be thoroughly investigated, but the state has painted Nelson as a rogue cop who abuses his power, and violence is his preference. Murray said all of the incidents Eakes mentioned have been heavily disputed, and considering he was an Auburn officer for 11 years, they’re nothing.
Murray pointed out how Nelson was a man who tried to help people, referencing statements from friends and colleagues that characterized that. She referenced how his father-in-law said Nelson bought a homeless veteran a bus ticket home, how another told a story about Nelson teaching a younger officer compassion when engaging with a homeless man, and another about how Nelson talked a veteran off a ledge who was trying to kill himself.
Nelson’s wife, Mounts, told Phelps that Nelson was hurt badly after the incident with Jesse Sarey, and his chest was deformed and still is. Mounts also told Phelps that Nelson loved animals, fed the birds, constantly checked on family, and always tried to help get less fortunate kids presents during Christmas.
Betz, the Auburn Police assistant chief, told Phelps that he has known Nelson for 16 years and described him as a person who served his community and his country when he was in the military. Betz told Phelps that Nelson helped him when he went through tragedy with his child, and he has been vilified, but the actions have shown he has a heart.
Adams, the Auburn Police commander, said despite what has been said about Nelson in the media, that’s not who he is. Adams told Phelps that as a Black man, he’s seen Nelson treat everyone fairly, and Nelson supported him when he took a knee during the George Floyd protests.
The judge’s verdict
Phelps said she gave a sentence of 200 months, 20 months less than the maximum sentence, because she did recognize there was an initial struggle in the murder, but Nelson was supposed to be properly situated for an occurrence like that, and he, as a police officer had the duty to protect and serve others.
Phelps said she heard the testimony about Nelson and how he helped people, but it was hard to fit that together when she had heard him say that he wanted to commit assault against a civilian while he was an officer.
“Those are not situations where he was having a bad day, and he was stressed out and yelled at someone who falsely accused him of speaking harshly to them. He said, ‘I want to F them up.’ He is a police officer, he said and admitted he wanted to commit the crime of assault,” Phelps said. “That is who his character is. With great power comes great responsibility. There’s no greater honor than to serve those in the community. And I would just say particularly those who are vulnerable, as Jesse Sarey was, and you can tell a lot about a person and how they treat the most vulnerable among them.”